Can yoga improve pregnancy, labor, and birth outcomes? Several studies point to 'yes'!

Pregnancy is no joke. Back pain, mood changes and difficulty sleeping are just the tip of the iceberg: your body is undergoing crazy physiological changes from day one of your pregnancy. And one of the most stressful parts of being pregnant is stress itself. Maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy is associated with a smorgasbord of negative consequences for the fetus's development. When you're stressed out, your body releases different hormones and changes blood flow to certain parts of your body. The cocktail of hormones, peptides and other hard-to-pronounce substances that your baby is stewing in have an enormous effect on his or her development: your body is preparing your baby for the world they will be born into. If it's a stressful world, that baby better be chock-full of stress hormones, right? For example, maternal stress and stress-related peptides can negatively affect the programming of the fetus's nervous system and brain morphology throughout the child's lifetime. Just one more thing to be stressed about!

But there's good news! Several recent studies have determined that yoga during pregnancy can decrease stress, improve mood, and even improve labor and birth outcomes! How, you ask? Let me break it down: you have two nervous systems, the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. Let's call them 'fight or flight' and 'rest and digest'. Your 'fight or flight' nervous system runs on epinephrine and norepinephrine, also known as adrenaline. Your 'rest and digest' nervous system runs on acetylcholine.

When you're stressed, your body switches over to your 'fight or flight' nervous system, increases your heart rate and breathing rate, shunts blood away from your organs, and redirects it to your limbs so you can out-run a sabre-tooth tiger, or scream at that guy who cut you off on the freeway. When you're calm, your body switches to your 'rest and digest' nervous system: your heart rate and breathing rate slow, your body directs blood flow to your internal organs, and you feel calm and peaceful.

In our crazy 2017 world, we live more and more in 'fight or flight' mode. Your commute to work or trip to the grocery store can be a stressful experience. Mindful awareness, meditation, and yoga can train our bodies to spend more time resting and digesting, and less time yelling at the bus boy who spilled water in your lap.

Yoga has been found to improve stress levels, quality of life, parasympathetic (or rest and digest) nervous system parameters, and to decrease pain and duration of labor. So put on your stretchy pants and get to class!

All yoga teachers are not created equally, and during pregnancy it is important to seek out a qualified and experienced yoga teacher who is well-versed in prenatal modifications. Remember that during pregnancy, your body secretes a hormone called relaxin that can make your joints extra-flexible, so some poses may be contraindicated for you. Work with your physical therapist to develop a yoga program that is right for you.

Cupping, one of the lesser known treatment modalities used in traditional Chinese Medicine, is an ancient healing technique in which heated glass cups are used to create a negative pressure or suction against the body.

Cupping has had its media moments, most recently during the 2016 Rio Olympics when gold medalist Michael Phelps was shown in sponsor ads with the telltale bruised circles across his back. Since then, many of my patients have asked about the benefits of cupping; here is a brief introduction on where this practice came from and what it can do for you today.

Early records in the form of hieroglyphics in Egypt, writings of Hippocrates in Greece, and other ancient medical texts from China have shown that cupping was a therapeutic practice used by many different cultures dating as far back as 3,500 years ago.

The earliest writings from China describe cups made of cattle horn and and cut sections of bamboo to draw out infections from cuts and boils. Over time, the instruments used have evolved and the applications of the therapy have expanded through clinical experience, trial, and error.

Today cupping is commonly used in conjunction with acupuncture but it can also be used on its own for a wide range of issues. I often use cupping to accelerate the healing process and provide pain relief in musculoskeletal pain conditions.

Applying cups to a painful area where the body is holding a lot of tension can help to relax the surrounding tissue and increase blood flow to the area.

My patients often describe cupping to feel like a deep massage - and while a massage therapist will press down into the skin and musculature, cupping actually works in an inverse way. The heat applied inside a glass cup just before using it creates a vacuum by drawing the oxygen out. The cup is then placed down on the skin and the vacuum created in the cup then strongly draws up the skin and superficial muscle layers into it. In addition to increasing blood flow to the area, the local inflammation that is created is thought to trigger an immune response, which encourages your body to heal faster.

Beyond muscle aches and pains, cupping therapy can also be used to treat other common ailments such as headaches, respiratory issues (especially chronic cough and asthma) and gastrointestinal disorders.

The physical application of the cups is generally the same, however, depending on diagnosis of the condition, the cups are placed over the distinct acupuncture points and meridians to be affected.

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